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Letters to the Editor Monday

Posted: October 7, 2012 - 11:05pm

In his Oct. 4 column on national election and politics, “Why Obama remains popular,” George Will uses the example of baseball ownership hiring the first black baseball manager. His name is Frank Robinson.

They hired Mr. Robinson without any thought of hiring the first black manager, but because they thought Robinson was the best man for the job. They also didn’t have any hesitation in firing Manager Robinson when his skills and record was not up to their standards.

In Savannah, our first black city manager was hired 18 months ago because she was the last person standing and then-Mayor Otis Johnson wanted “somebody that looks like him.”

Was Rochelle Small-Toney the very best candidate for the job? We’ll never know. Mayor Johnson took the easy way and hired the candidate for the color of her skin.

Our new mayor, Edna Jackson, doesn’t see people by their skin color, but by what they can and can’t do. There are standards the city wants to uphold. There are city policies that must be followed, and when they are ignored or disobeyed, changes must be made.

Mayor Jackson has shown us the city has grown in leadership and race relations, just as the owners of the Cleveland Indians did many years ago.

BRUCE TUTEN

Savannah

Remember the victims of domestic violence

I recently received a list from the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence of all the domestic violence homicide victims this year. Thank goodness, there were none from Chatham County this time.

But these victims from all over the state deserve our respect and our resolve to shorten the list until there are none.

The list contains 68 names, with many of the victims just starting their lives.

These are not just numbers or statistics. They are sisters, daughters, friends and mothers. And while I don’t know the story behind their untimely deaths, I do know that none of them deserved to die.

When you go home at night, unafraid, remember there are those who are terrified of what waits for them when they get home. And above all, remember we all have to be the voice for all of those who have no voice.

As we kick off Domestic Violence Awareness Month this month, let’s remember these victims.

Please join us on Oct. 13, 6 p.m., at the fountain in Forsyth Park for our annual Candlelight Vigil. And please check out our new website, safeshelter.org, for more information about the Step Forward 5k walk on Oct. 27 at Lake Mayer.

CHERYL HAVEN BRANCH

Executive Director

SAFE Shelter

Savannah

Who was the worst president ever? Dubya

Since last spring at least a half dozen people have written letters to the editor suggesting that President Obama had surpassed Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton as the worst president the republic has ever had.

I have tried to ignore this silliness, but Lance Novak’s letter (Sept. 30, Why Jimmy Carter is Happiest Man in US) was the last straw. They seemed to have completely forgotten about my candidate for this dubious honor: George W. Bush.

Mr. Bush took us into two unnecessary wars resulting in the death of 6,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, 10,000 soldiers were wounded and more than 50,000 vets still desperately need treatment for post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Let’s not forget that at least 100,000 Iraqis are dead and half a million Christians have been killed or run out of Iraq.

Following the fall of Baghdad, the Bush administration didn’t have a clue what to do. They disbanded the Iraqi army and put recent Bible college graduates in charge of re-building the city.

At the close of his administration, legal scholars and academics, not-partisan politicians, seriously debated whether criminal and war crime charges should be brought against senior officials of the Bush administration.

I feel that this un-paralleled record should be considered the next time someone wants to write the paper and suggest a candidate for the worst president ever.

LAWRENCE B. LEE

Savannah

Voting by ethnicity causes more harm

Leaders of the civil rights movement fervently believed that when the Afro-American community achieved political ascendancy, our nation would realize the American ideal of a fair and just society.

However, Dr. Martin Luther King and those who marched and prayed with him and sacrificed so much, even their lives, would be appalled at the behavior of our public officials.

They have dishonored his achievements by stooping to the lowest level of political venality. Rather than acting as role models for their community and the public they serve, our politicians have demonstrated the basest of behaviors. Rather than disproving the doubters and bigots who tried to thwart their struggle, officials have provided more fodder to substantiate the claim that they are unworthy of Dr. King’s legacy.

It is inevitable that this behavior will continue as long as the electorate votes by ethnicity rather than credentials and accomplishments. Most egregious of all is the fact that this latest debacle will most assuredly not result in a change in behavior as long as the current mindset of “it’s our turn now” prevails.

EUGENE J. FRIEDMAN

Savannah

Why Obama’s failure shocked the media

It is pretty evident President Obama blew the first debate. His performance came as a shock to many media and press folk because they believe what each other regurgitates.

They have been protecting Obama since the get-go.

Has this served him well?

Probably not, because when Obama was under attack he faded, he came across as limp spaghetti.

He revealed himself to be what he always has been and Clint Eastwood had pinned down — a lazy, empty suit sitting in an empty chair.

Obama was a loser, but the biggest loser was the media and press and this is not the first time. No wonder they have sunk so low in public esteem and are no longer considered trustworthy.

This is not healthy, however, because the “fourth estate” is critical to the survival of our republic. A free, unbiased press capable of objective investigative reporting is essential, and they not only do themselves a disservice by their bias but the nation and our very freedom as well.

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"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." How quickly you forget and disrespect those that perished needlessly on 9/11. We didn't start that war but we rightfully went after "all" of those complict with that act. You see no outrage from those countries about our dead loved ones? What everyone forgets is how gutted our military was and the cost to rebuild it after the Clinton era of downsizing and a unknown enemy. Our weakened foreign policy of "hope" from president Obama has us being attacked from all sides and he clearly hasn't clue of what to do, if fact he cannot even bring himself to call the murder of our ambassador a terrorist attack out of fear of offending someone! If I'm ever taken hostage while abroad, I can only pray Carter or Obama are not President.

You Tell Em' Lawrence,.....Dubya, Worst President Ever, and with the worst Decisions Yet. Obama is far from Perfect, but compared to Dubya, and The Current Republicans, Obama and the democrats Look much Safer for my vote.

The patsies on the planes were mostly Saudis. We get oil from and control the government of Saudi Arabia, so we couldn't attack them. If you have proof that 911 was plotted and staged in Afghanistan, please bring it forward. You will then be the first person in history who will have ever introduced such proof. As far as I am aware, none of the countries we are currently bombing or for that matter, countries we have recently bombed, have ever attacked us, nor do they have the military strength or even the transport vehicles, either air or sea craft, to attack us.

Freshly graduated from the Tom Barton School of Diplomacy, rootin' tootin' Bruce Tuten waves the olive branch of peace and declares that Mayor Edna Jackson has come of age as a leader simply because she finally caved in on the city manager after the house burned down and Rochelle was standing there with the matches and gasoline. Tell ya what, pal: Edna had no other choice, unless she wanted to be sittin' in the big chair on the day that city government came to a screeching halt. Even then, we are still so deep in the woods that it will take the boy scouts, the marines, and the GBI to get us out.

ON THE DAY THAT EDNA JACKSON RENOUNCES HER MEMBERSHIP IN NFBPA, YOU CAN ANNOUNCE THAT SHE HAS "GROWN AS A LEADER IN RACE RELATIONS". Until that day, you can join me in my new political organization, No Freakin' Biased People Allowed!

2. After being told, “A second plane hit the second Tower. America is under attack.” He keep reading to the kids for eight minutes and then took his time leaving the classroom and ended up in an underground bunker in Nebraska.

3. Put Afghanistan on the back burner and invaded Iraq to get rid of WMDs and said the war and subsequent reconstruction would pay for itself with Iraqi oil revenue.

4. "Mission Accomplished.”

5.. Failed to plan for Iraq occupation after Saddam’s government fell.

6. Let Osama Bin Laden get away at Tora Bora and then could not get him.

7. Disregarded FISA laws, tortured prisoners, removes the right to Habeas Corpus, fired Federal Prosecutors for political purposes and Outed a CIA agent for political purposes. Tried to appoint his personal attorney, Harriet Myers, to the Supreme Court.

8. Didn’t veto a single bill for six years and when he finally did it was to shoot down the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.

9. Deregulated Wall Street that helped build the housing bubble and allowed financial institutions to pursue risky trades unchecked that caused the financial crash that plunged the nation into the recession that we are still in.

10. Cut taxes while starting two wars and a unpaid for Drug Program that helped senior some and drug companies more. The Bush tax cuts, which over 50 percent of benefited the richest 5 percent of American taxpayers and cost about $2.5 trillion over the decade after they were enacted.

Sorry, but failing to rectify the problem is not the same thing as giving support. Opposition to slavery at the time of the founders was significant. Thomas Jefferson thought that slavery was "contrary to the laws of nature", which decreed that everyone had a right to personal liberty. Yes, he owned slaves, but that should be viewed in the context of his times. The widely misunderstood three-fifths compromise (only slaves were counted as such, not free blacks) was an attempt to woo the southern states into the union (necessary for its very survival), while limiting the number of representatives allocated to those states. The hope was that the "peculiar institution" could be contained and eventually eradicated. Lincoln was hardly the first president to oppose the practice, just the first to have a realistic opportunity to do something about it.

The typical missionary work after high school for boys is two years, so that would have only delayed Romney's service, not eliminated it. Fact is, Romney was never drafted to begin with. It's pretty tough to be considered a draft dodger, when Uncle never even asks you to serve. I guess Obama is a draft dodger, too, using weasel's criteria, and maybe even weasel himself.

on the subject of slavery. Although Thomas Jefferson owned slaves he knew it was wrong. He also knew the day would come when slavery would be eradicated but it wouldn't happen during his lifetime. At that time our country was too new and trying to establish itself and the decisions about slavery would have to be argued and fought over not in his lifetime.

Thomas Jefferson only free a couple of slaves upon his death and the main reason was because most of them had been there their entire lives and would not be able to make a living and would probably not survive if left to fend for themselves.

The reason I know this is because I went to Charlotteseville Virginia and toured his home and museum (Monticello).

Looks like we need a laugh around here, so I give you Congressman Paul Broun's ode to fundamentalist "thought":

“God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. It’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior. There’s a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I believe that the Earth is about 9,000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says. And what I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually. How to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all our public policy and everything in society. And that’s the reason, as your congressman, I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.”

A 9,000 year old Earth...I guess radio metric dating just proves that even the basic elements of matter are in on the vast scientific conspiracy to age the Earth!

Mr. Broun, over there in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Taliban are shaking their collective heads in agreement and praising Allah.

Even more amazing, beyond the fact that this guy sits on the Science, Space and Technology Committee, is that he graduated with a degree in Chemistry before going to Medical school? :-)

is a true draft dodger even going to another country to protest the Viet Nam war yet you lefties out there don't have a problem with that because he is Bill Clinton. If you aren't going to used that argument to judge Bill Clinton then you shouldn't use it to judge any other presidential nominee.

If my tax dollars have paid for memberships to the NFBPA for you and other employees of the City of Savannah...hummmm Time for a petition to stop using my tax dollars for an organization that promotes only one race. By doing this you are creating the divide that is fueling the racism here in Savannah. Really, that needs to stop, promoting one race is insidious to say the least.

To rebut that Lincoln ever sought to free the slaves all we need to do is read his own words written in a letter to Horace Greeley on August 22, 1862, almost a year and half after becoming president.

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save theUnion…" you probaly think he was a zombie hunter too huh?

I agree Clinton had a shot at Bin Laden once and didn’t take it for various reasons, like Bush at Tora Bora. One of President Bush W’s big mistakes to me was on the morning of 9/11 he still went into that classroom even after he knew one plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in NY. Then to go on into the class and start reading ‘The Pet Goat ‘and then while he is still reading he has whispered in his ear “A second plane hit the second Tower. America is under attack,” and he keeps reading to the kids for eight more minutes. The one man in our country that can authorize our military aircraft to shoot down commercial airliners and he is sitting there reading ‘The Pet Goat’.

bush dropped the ball big time. but we don't idolize him like so many do with the current POTUS. My question to every one now is why do you neglect to criticize Barry with the same standards. Must you be so lock step with your party to overlook their faults as well?

Once the planes crashed into the WTC, what was there to shoot down? Do you have evidence that Bush knew what was happening BEFORE the airliners crashed or that he could have done a darned thing to stop them (if you think fighter jets on the ground can be scrambled and on site in less than 10 minutes, you are delusional). If you want to play this childish game, what is your reaction to the report that Obama knew that Ambassador Stevens and others were in grave danger and yet, not knowing the status of the ambassador, he allegedly went quietly to bed? Let's see, trying not to upset a classroom full of young children in a time of crisis or trying to catch a few zzz's - which demonstrates the greater callousness and disregard for human life?

You said, “Once the planes crashed into the WTC, what was there to shoot down?” Well there were two other planes that had been hijacked, but at the time we didn’t know if there were two more or twenty more. Also if we were under attack by Russia, the time line with subs involved would have been minutes. There were two fighter squadrons at Andrews Air Force Base which is about ten miles from the Pentagon.

Obama sleep while Ambassador Stevens was killed, are you sure about that? What time was Ambassador Stevens killed Washington DC time? It is the host country’s duty to protect our Embassy personal, there is no way we can keep a division at each Embassy. So Obama sleep while 4 were killed overseas in the middle of the night and Bush read “The Pet Goat” in broad daylight while a plane with 59 people aboard was headed to the Pentagon where 125 people were killed because he didn’t want to upset the kids!

yea I guess direct quotes from Lincolns own letters were tampered with just to fit your dillusional veiw of history, faced with facts you still cling to a fairy tail.... Sad............well there is a movie out he apparently carried an axe and killed zombies too!

I tried to stay away from this discussion but with history being rewritten so badly I just can't.

First I will say slavery was a very dehumanizing practice and should not have been allowed to happen to any race.

bosticklc;

In the US slaves were owned by both north and south, not just the south. After slavery was rightly abolished the north treated the blacks living amongst them like trash and told them how bad southerners were. Some southerners did the same but alot gave them land and possessions.

Before slavery begin in the US slavery existed all over the world. Africans enslaved their own people. They killed, raped and destroyed other tribes to gain power. Then they sold them to the English and other countries.

Reading ancient history it seems that almost every race was enslaved at one time or another, some for alot longer than the slaves of the US.

Although the largest percentage of slaves in the US were from Africa, there were slaves from almost every country in the world and of every skin color.

You mentioned reading garbage on this site and you my friend have provided your share today. Please go find a history book and read it.

What world are you living in that you don't believe that the roots of 9/11 came by way of Afghanistan? Saddam Hussein provoked and boasted his MWD capabilites -- he got what he deserved. Here's your proof from when Bill Clinton failed at the job, but you don't hear anyone faulting him. Perhaps if he'd done his job when the towers were first bombed and again when Osama bin Laden was handed to him on a silver platter -- we'd never would have seen 9/11 and you wouldn't have Bush to criticize.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise_missile_strikes_on_Afghanistan_and_Sudan_(August_1998)

...but Mitt Romney like Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, and a host of others, had "other priorities". There was no draft in Obama's time of eligibility. Therein lies the difference, Grateful Dude. But, I am sure that you knew that already...right?

Saddam Hussein does not belong in the same paragraph as 9/11. As far as what Bill Clinton did to Saddam, you don't have a clue what you are talking about. I suggest reading Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks, in which you would learn that from interviews with Iraqi scientists, U.S. Weapons Inspector David Kaye found that the cruise missile attacks by the USA against Iraq under Clinton's orders dissuaded them from any further pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weaponry. That is why none was found by the UN and US inspectors on the ground in Iraq, much to Don Rumsfeld's and Dick Cheney's surprise. Bush, eh, he didn't have a clue. The book is not only a good read, it is now required reading at the War College.

Since you seem to know what clues everyone have...two topics...I wasn't referring to any cruise missile attacks on the Iraqis? I was simply stating that Saddam boasted and got what he deserved. The missile attacks I was talking about were in Afghanistan where Clinton failed miserably. Maybe reading should be required before you comment?

If military service was a prerequisite for being president, Obama would be attending church services with Jeremiah Wright and the military bands would be playing "Hail to the Chief" when John McCain walked into the room.

Plant that got $150M in taxpayer money to make Volt batteries furloughs workers.

President Obama touted it in 2010 as evidence "manufacturing jobs are coming back to the United States,” but two years later, a Michigan hybrid battery plant built with $150 million in taxpayer funds is putting workers on furlough before a single battery has been produced.

seems to be implying that Romney should be penalized for NOT being drafted during the time of the draft. If he/she has evidence that Romney WAS drafted but received a deferment for "other priorities", he/she should present that evidence. Otherwise, Obama should also be penalized for not volunteering during the time of an all-volunteer military.

...then by the same logic, Mitt Romney must be called one too. Otherwise, it is hypocrisy, plain and simple. Either both Mitt and Slick Willie "dodged" the draft, or neither did.

As far as Obama is concerned, he didn't volunteer to serve in the military, like millions of others. Whether or not that matters to someone when voting for President is their decision. Neither candidate served.

and a few months ago got up in front of a group of veterans and told them he was never called up to serve. Several of our presidents have not served in the military, there's no shame in that, but for goodness sakes don't lie about it. It's just too easy to check the facts.

I've watched the Savannah city manager search, hiring and firing from beginning to end. I have to question Mr. Tuten's statement that Rochelle Small-Toney was the last person standing at the end of the search. I may be wrong but I got the impression that the entire city manager search was just a performance to meet the legal requirements to fill the position. I believe the city council never had any intention of hiring anyone else. They were fulfilling Otis Johnson's legacy no matter that the person they hired wasn't qualified by education, experience or reputation. The city council has done a great disservice to the people of Savannah. I truly pray that there is an audit of every department and that every unjustly terminated employee steps forward and speaks out. One day there will be a reckoning. It would be wise to hold the applause until this dog and pony show is over. Because the "CYA" act started when Mayor Jackson pulled her pony out of the show. As someone who grew up in Savannah and now is on the outside looking in, Savannah is a beautiful lady with a filthy face.

I served on active duty for over 15 years, 2 1/2 enlisted and the rest as an officer. I also had an additional 3 years in the reserves (while finishing college) between my two periods of service. And, if it makes any difference, my draft lottery number was 220; I joined to be a Navy Corpsman near the end of the Vietnam War, even though I had a college deferment. My father almost went ballistic, since he'd already worried for my brother who served two tours in Vietnam. I was very lucky; we were starting to pull out by the time I finished corps school, and I ended up at a Naval Hospital stateside.